Dear brothers and sisters, we can’t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering. And God will use this persecution to show his justice and to make you worthy of his Kingdom, for which you are suffering.

2 Thessalonians 1:3-5

Dear God, I wonder what it was really like for the Thessalonians to get this encouragement from Paul in the midst of their persecution. I also think it’s of note that in the midst of their persecution he describes their faith as flourishing and their love for one another as growing.

I hear Christians in our country claim that we are being persecuted by nonbelievers in our society. I can’t help but wonder if that were really true, wouldn’t that mean our solidarity with each other and our faith would be growing? Instead, we seem to be in a cycle right now that includes anger and a spirit of fighting back. Perhaps we aren’t truly being persecuted, but maybe it’s the opposite. Could it be that we are the ones trying to do the persecuting?

Another slant to this is our own community. We have a myriad of social issues in our small town, but somehow it feels like the church is being crockpotted into lethargy. We are the frog in the pot on a slow path to boiling. Would it really take outright persecution to finally get the church fully engaged in the problems instead of passionately doing it proactively (and I use the word “passionately” intentionally because what we are currently doing is often half-hearted)? And what about me? I have some concerns about what’s going on, I articulate them to others, and I even get involved in some committees to explore them, but am I really out there pursuing you and passionately taking you into my community through addressing these issues?

Father, I feel like I need a spiritual B12 shot. I’m spending time with you, but there’s no sense of urgency to my activity. I would hate to think they I have to be really pressed to get to that sense of urgency. Help me to find a path to a little more intensity, and if it can be without any specific suffering, but just through my love for and worship of you I would welcome that—but not my will but your will be done.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen